Tomb II at Vergina: making sense of the weight inscriptions

Tomb II at Vergina: making sense of the weight inscrip7ons

David W.J. Gill

Manolis Andronikos

The face of Philip II

Vergina

  East of where the Aliakmon enters the Macedonian plain

Vergina: the palace

The palace at Vergina

  Iden7fied in 1861   Dated to 350-‐300 BCE   Abandoned in C2 BCE

The palace at Vergina

Vergina: the theatre

  SePng for the murder of Philip II

  Immediately below the royal palace

Vergina: the tumulus cemetery

The Great Mound

Tomb II

  Antechamber and main chamber, each with burial

  Barrel-‐vaulted roof   Classical façade to the structure

Tomb II: sec7on through Great Mound

Tomb II

  View of the main chamber from the opening in the vault

  The stone sarcophagus lies at the top of the screen with armour to its leU

Tomb II: Silver and bronze

  Selec7on of the silver and bronze from the main chamber

Tomb II: Weight inscrip7ons

  Two calyx cups   Two stemless cups   Strainer

Vergina weight inscrip7ons


1.  41 dr 2.  62 dr, 3 obols 3.  63 dr, 3 obols 4.  92 dr, 1 obol 5.  94 dr, 3 obols

Panagyurishte

  Two weight inscrip7ons   ‘100’   ‘196 dr and 1/4 obol’

 Weight: 845.7 g

  Interpreta7on   100 darics @ 8.45 g

  845.7 g / 4.31 g

Tomb III

  Silver hydria   2300 g   Alphabe7c weight inscrip7ons   5 Minae, 68 dr

Mul7ple weights

  Gold phiale in New York   ‘180’   747 g

 Unit is 4.15 g   But 2 x 90 daric phialai (@ 8.3 g)

Round number of weights

•  Gold phiale from Olympia: 10 karsha

•  ‘From the spoils of Herakleia’

One mina phialai

  Kozani   Originally dedicated to Athena at Megara but from C4 BCE Macedonian tomb

  Duvanli   New York

Duvanli phiale

Tomb II: Silver strainer

  Inscrip7on: 41 dr (@ 4.18 g)

  Compare:   Derveni: 39 dr (@ 4.18 g)

  ‘Kavalla’: 45 dr (@4.23 g)

Silver strainer

  Boston, MFA

  From Meroe, pyramid of king Arakakamani (315-‐297 BCE)

Tomb II: stemless cups

  Two weight inscrip7ons   62 dr and 3 obols (@ 4.26 g)

  63 dr and 3 obols (@ 4.25 g)

Tomb II: calyx cup

  Two cups with weight inscrip7ons:   92 dr and 1 obol   94 dr and 1 obol

  Gives unit of 2.09 g and 2.08 g

  ‘I do not know of such a unit of weight for the ancient drachma’ (Andronikos)

The inscrip7ons on the calyx cups

  Cup 1   Inscrip7on: 192 g, weighing 92 dr and 1 obol

  Extant: 46 dr (@ 4.17 g)

 Hypothe7cal: 46 dr and 1 obol (@ 4.17 g)

  Cup 2   Inscrip7on: 195.7 g, weighing 94 dr and 3 obols

  Extant: 47 dr and 2 obols (@ 4.14 g)  Hypothe7cal: 47 dr and 1 obol (@ 4.14 g)

The Vergina weights

 Strainer 4.17 g  Calyx-‐cups: 4.17 g and 4.14 g  Stemless cups: 4.26 g and 4.25 g  Philip’s stater: 14.40 g (of 5 dr each of 2.88 g)  Alexander’s tetradrachm: 17.18 g (of 4 dr each of 4.3 g)  Possibly adopted in 333 BCE

Tomb II: poiery

  APc black-‐glossed spool-‐shaped saltcellars   ‘325-‐295 BCE’ (Rotroff)

Tomb II

 Barrel-‐vaulted roof  Was it introduced to Macedonia a"er Alexander’s conquests?

Tomb II: calyx cup

  Achaemenid shape

  Common in Macedonia and Thrace

Tomb II: ‘diadem’

  A symbol of Macedonian kings apparently introduced aUer Alexander’s conquests

Tomb of Eurydike

  Tomb located between the theatre and the Great Mound

  Found in 1987   Date ‘c. 340 BCE’

  Based on APc Panathenaic amphora fragment that provides tpq of 344/3

  Contained marble throne

Tomb II

  Lion Hunt frieze on façade

  Palagia notes its introduc7on with the crema7on of Hephaes7on in the autumn of 324

Tomb II: oinochoe

 Would the quan7ty of silver and gold have been buried before Alexander’s conquests?

Tomb II: Pyre

  The body was cremated above the tomb

Tomb II: Larnax

  From the main chamber

  Contained the cremated remains of a middle-‐aged man

Tomb II: Larnax

Tomb II: facial reconstruc7on

  Reconstruc7on by the Manchester forensic team

  Based on portraits of Philip II

Tomb II: Ivory portraits

  One of a series of small ivory portraits mounted on an ivory-‐decorated wooden couch

Tomb II: skeletal material

  Intact leU 7bia   Indica7on of a ‘dry bone crema7on’, i.e. the person had been dead a considerable length of 7me before the body was cremated

Great Mound

The Great Mound

Tomb I

  ‘Tomb of Persephone’

  Adjacent to the Heroon   Contained an adult male,

a woman and a ‘newly-‐born baby’

  Dated to mid C4 BCE on the basis of black-‐glossed poiery

Tomb I

  ‘Tomb of Persephone’

  Found in 1977

The Heroon

  9.60 x 8 m

  ‘almost touching the small tomb’ (Andronikos) sc. Tomb I

  Alexander said to have ‘founded a temple above [Philip’s] tomb’

The Heroon

  Note the rela7onship between the Heroon, the cist-‐grave (Tomb I) and behind it Tomb II

Tomb III

  North-‐west of Tomb II

  Antechamber and chamber

  Doric façade   Contained the cremated

remains of a male aged c. 14   ? Alexander IV (murdered c.

309)

Conclusion

 Evidence against Tomb II containing Philip II  Date of black-‐glossed poiery  Silver weights use a drachma introduced under Alexander

 Male body shows signs of ‘dry crema7on’ and no signs of damage to facial orbit

 The Lion Hunt frieze  The ‘diadem’

Tomb II at Vergina: making sense of the weight inscriptions

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